Breast prostheses have become more common place with women who have had a mastectomy. The typical prosthesis is formed of a gelatinous and pliable material within a flexible skin material that resembles a woman's breast. There are several types of breast prostheses currently available. For example, typical types of breast prosthesis forms having triangular shapes, teardrop shapes and asymmetrical shapes. The type of shape that is used is usually determined by the type of surgery that was performed. Page 22 of the J.C. Penney Fall/Winter 1999 Catalog Presents Jodee Post-mastectomy Fashions describes these well known types of breast prosthesis forms.
All of the breast prostheses has a tendency to deform out of shape when not being worn. Current methods of storing the prosthesis have also added to the deformations to the prosthesis over time. For example, the typical prosthesis is sold in a cardboard type box that is not reusable. The typical packing materials such as plastic and crushed paper in the packing boxes do not adequately support the prosthesis during times of nonuse. These packing boxes cannot be constantly reused over time, and are very large and take up allot of room.
Additionally, the breast prosthesis has a tendency to absorb the imprint of the surface that the prosthesis is supported by. For example, when used with a brassiere the breast prosthesis forms wrinkles on the surface thereof as a mirror image of the generally stiff brassiere material.
When not being used wearers have been forced to resort to slinging the prosthesis over a door knob or the top of the door itself when the prosthesis is not being used. Leaving the prosthesis in open areas such as on door knobs, tops of doors, on the tops of dresser drawers and sink tops is also not aesthetically pleasing nor pleasant to the wearer. The problems of storage become even a greater concern when the wearer is traveling and now needs a clean surface for temporary storage which is difficult to find in places such as hotel rooms and such.
Attempts have been made over the years to overcome these storage problems. U.S. Pat. No. 5,037,436 Heaston describes a support for a breast prosthesis having an inflatable bladder. The Heaston '436 patent requires the user to blow into a valve to fill a balloon type support. Besides the unsanitary requirement of making the user blow into the valve, the plastic type bladder material would be useless with even a single pinhole leak and would be useless over time. Women with new breast cancer or lung cancer cannot "blow" easily.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,316,147 and Des.351,729 to Wever-unger and U.S. Pat. No. 4,750,619 to Cohen et al. each describe cases for receiving breast prosthesis. However, the cases appear as bulky packing boxes which are not collapsible during transport. Besides not being aesthetic, all of these devices would tend to cause attention to be focused at the storage device itself, which is not what the wearer would desire.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,354,337 to Hoy describes a breast prosthesis support having a cup support with vertical legs. However, the Hoy '337 legs are inserted by dowel ends into receptacles and must be completely removed when disassembled which results in several loose pieces when being transported. Having plural leg parts increases the chance of losing a leg during transport. Additionally, the "bra..cup" shape of Hoy only allows for the tear drop breast prosthesis shape to be supported. Hoy's limited shape would not be able to adequately support the triangular and asymmetrical shape breast prostheses.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,146,635 to Gastle et al. describes a veterinary surgery table that must be large enough to support a "calf" during surgery procedures. Besides being unduly large and cumbersome and not able to be easily transported, Gastle requires adjustable "buckles" that have inherently sharp and protruding surface edges which would easily puncture and otherwise damage a breast prosthesis. Furthermore, the buckles would have to be constantly adjusted when being used and taken apart. Finally, Gastle has no planar support surface for supporting the entire prosthesis. Instead the straps and buckles would easily cause surface indentations on a pliable breast prostheses.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,974,525 to Sheffield describes a "folding table apparatus" which also has sharp surface edges such as visible hooks for holding its' chains. During assembly and disassembly, the chains would have to be unhooked and rehooked and desirable hook positions would have to be constantly reinvented. Additionally, Sheffield describes using a flat hard type planar surface which would flatten out a breast prosthesis and not allow a breast prosthesis to be supported in a natural undeformed state.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,839,754 to Hooper describes a "folding baby cot" that has many sharp protruding surface edges such as exposed metal edged holes, protruding metal buttons, sharp rivets and the like, which can easily damage a breast prosthesis. Besides being unduly large and cumbersome to transport, Hooper requires substantial disassembly for transport, such as removing rigid telescoping tubes. Additionally, the "canvas" type support material in Hooper would not allow a breast prosthesis to be supported in a nondeformed state, and instead would flatten the shape of the breast prosthesis.